Quakertown voids council election vote

Officials acknowledge that tally broke state's open meetings law.

Quakertown officials have acknowledged that the election of Dennis Hallman as council president on Tuesday, which was done by secret ballot, violated the state law governing public meetings.

"It was done improperly," Councilman Dave Wilsey said Thursday. "I didn't know that then, but I do know now in light of what I've learned about [the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act]."

Borough officials declared Hallman's election invalid and scheduled a special meeting at 8:15 a.m. Saturday at borough hall to revote on the election.

"It was a misunderstanding, that's all," Hallman said of the election process at the reorganization meeting. "We weren't trying to hide anything and I don't see it as a major problem."

Instead of the normal roll call vote, the seven council members wrote the name of one of the two nominees for the board presidency -- Hallman or Wilsey -- on pieces of paper.

After the votes were tallied by Borough Manager Dave Woglom and the recording secretary, only the name of the winner -- Hallman -- was announced. Neither the final tally nor how the members voted was made public or recorded in the minutes.

Section 705 of the Sunshine Act states "the vote of each member who actually votes on any resolution, rule, order, regulation, ordinance or the setting of official policy must be publicly cast and, in the case of roll call votes, recorded."

According to Teri Henning, general counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the appointment of a council president "would fall under this provision as such an appointment would constitute a resolution, rule or order of the board."

Henning said Hallman's election could have been challenged in court.

"Our solicitor has reviewed the Pennsylvania Sunshine Law and decided the voting for president of council must be done individually and that did not occur," Woglom said Thursday.

He added that, "just to be certain there are no other questions," council will vote again on all the agenda items voted on at Tuesday's meeting after Hallman was elected and assumed the role of president.

This will include adoption of the Bucks County Hazard Mitigation Plan, decisions on pension and billing procedures and a request to use Memorial Field for softball games.

On Tuesday night, after Hallman's election, Woglom refused to release the vote count to a freelance writer.

"It was done by a ballot system and our rules say only the winner is announced," he said Wednesday. "The [borough's administrative code] doesn't say the borough has to release what the count is."

Later in the day, Woglom did release the vote, which was 5 to 2.

But he was unable to say how each council member voted because they did not write their names on their ballots.

On Thursday, Woglom and Quakertown solicitor Charles Fonzone discussed the situation and it was decided to hold the special meeting.

Wilsey said he voted for himself, as did new Councilman Dave Zaiser, who nominated Wilsey. They are the only Democrats on council.

According to Wilsey, he requested the paper ballot, hoping one or more of the Republican council members might be more likely to vote for him if their vote was not made public.

"I guess I asked for something illegal, although I didn't know it then," he said.

Both Hallman and Wilsey said they will run for president if nominated Saturday.

"Our administrative code says an election can be done by ballot," Woglom said Thursday. "But our administrative code is inconsistent with the Pennsylvania Sunshine law and the Sunshine law supersedes our administrative code."

steve.wartenberg@mcall.com

215-529-2607

ILLEGAL VOTE

The state's Sunshine Act requires agency votes to be publicly cast.

Public agencies are not permitted to conduct secret votes, and there is no provision in the Sunshine Act that permits "ballot" voting.

Section 705 of the act provides as follows:

"In all meetings of agencies, the vote of each member who actually votes on any resolution, rule, order, regulation, ordinance or the setting of official policy must be publicly cast and, in the case of roll call votes, recorded."